


Secrets

by skidblast



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Lost Light, MTMTE #33 spoilers (if you squint), Post-Luna 1, The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye (IDW)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-09-27
Packaged: 2018-02-19 00:53:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2368223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skidblast/pseuds/skidblast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Chromedome discovers that Brainstorm, his closest friend, has been keeping a secret from him, he is compelled to ask the simple question: Why?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secrets

"Knock Knock."

Brainstorm had noticed Chromedome following him at a distance when he had finally left his workshop. After looting Luna 1 of some illicit goods Brainstorm had pretty limited time to examine it all in case some if not all the items had been booby-trapped somehow. Only two of them had been and only one of them had exploded before he had been able to disarm them. At least it had been a very anti-climactic bomb, barely a fizzle.

"Stalking me?" Brainstorm asked without looking around.

"I was worried." Chromedome said and entered the room. Brainstorm turned around so that he wouldn't go any further. The workshop was fine as long as they didn't touch anything that looked dangerous. But his own private quarters, something he had managed to wrangle from Rodimus, was a whole other thing. Chromedome seemed to understand and he stopped advancing.

"I would have thought you would know me by now." Brainstorm said. "If I am in trouble it would be because an experiment went awry and I have sensors set up all over the ship to alert everyone if that happened."

"All over the ship?" Chromedome looked skeptical.

"Red Alert was very receptive of that idea." Brainstorm's eyes narrowed slightly in a smile. When only having a faceplate the rest of the face was always trained to be much more expressive, and Chromedome was equally trained in that as well.

"Of course he was." Chromedome said. Red Alert was no more, kept in cold storage after his suicide attempt. Chromedome was just relieved that Rodimus had managed to get to that conclusion with the help of First Aid without calling him to dig into Red Alert's memories. He still had nightmares after the Sparkeater incident.

"But that's not why I came." Chromedome said. "This is the first time you've left the workshop after we left Luna 1. What is happening with you?" He asked.

"I was busy. Luna 1 had so much and I had to make sure that everything I got from there was good and wasn't going to destroy the ship." Brainstorm said.

"And you couldn't let any of that work fall to Perceptor?" Chromedome asked. 

"By Primus Perceptor wouldn't be even able to figure out what any one of those things could do by this time." Brainstorm shook his head. "He would probably be at the fourth preliminary scan now, just in case the first three changed something."

"Yeah, safety, what a bore." Chromedome shrugged. "But are you sure you buried yourself in work just to do the evaluations?"

"What other reason would there be?" Brainstorm picked up a datapad to check if his silent alarms had gone off in his workshop. None so far, but he figured someone would go back to check what he had been working on all this time.

"I don't know, maybe because back on Luna 1 you were writhing in pain as your spark was being ripped apart? Because that's quite a feat given you're Forged and all that."

"Ah, you're going to talk about that." Brainstorm glared at Chromedome, but Chromedome didn't stand down. It was clear he had come to Brainstorm with the intention to talk about this, and he wasn't going to give up.

"I've known you for a long time." Chromedome said. "And you've known me as well, all of me. But if you're hiding something as simple as how you were made, what more are you hiding from me?"

"Nothing else." Brainstorm said. "And that's the truth."

"But why hide this?" Chromedome asked.

"Ever wondered why you stranded in Mechaforensics? Or why they paired you up with Prowl in the pre-war days? You always had affinity for memories and such, you're a maestro with that." Brainstorm said.

"You're talking about the Apartheid days." Chromedome said. "They were over by the time I joined the police force."

"No they weren't." Brainstorm said. "They were just overshadowed by the Triple M, and then later overshadowed by the rise of the Decepticons. By the time you joined the new Institute they couldn't afford to be picky."

"And you?" Chromedome asked, determined not to make it just about himself. He had come to talk with Brainstorm about Brainstorm's past, not his owns.

"I am a flyer. Do you know how much hassle it was for someone like me pre-war to get alt-mode exempt? Sure, Whirl got exempt, but he's Forged. For someone Constructed Cold it was impossible. I knew I was a genius, I knew that whatever I could study I could master. But I was stuck as a soldier, fighting Triple M cells. But when the Triple M destroyed any records of the alt-modes and method of construction of those in Helex, I saw my chance."

"So you just changed your name and started faking your way through everything?" Chromedome asked.

"Fake?" Brainstorm laughed. "The only thing I faked was claiming I was Forged. No one even suspected. I was a genius. I was a flyer but I could easily use my brains to study what weaponry the Triple M were using and from there I got alt-mode exempt. I could do anything I wanted, I finally got what I deserved."

"But all that is based on a lie." Chromedome said. "You faked your way through everything."

"Everything I've done is based on that, I know. If that happy terrorism act had never occurred I would have died fighting the Decepticons long time ago. Imagine what would have happened to the Autobots without my brilliance or my inventions!"

"Is lying to yourself really the way to go?" Chromedome asked.

"I've never denied what I've done, I've just never told anyone." Brainstorm said. "But speaking of lying to yourself, do you still remember who Rewind was to you? Or do you have fresh surgery scars in the back of your neck?"

Chromedome looked aside. "Of course I know who he is." He said low. He had thought about going through with it, just a prick and it was over. But that last message, the last thing he had of Rewind.

"Wow." Brainstorm said shocked. "I seriously thought you had gone through with it." He said. "I thought I would just see you with that puzzled expression when I would ask. That you would give me a new excuse to hate you."

"What are you talking about?" Chromedome asked, then shook his head. "Never mind, forget I asked." He let himself relax. "No more secrets, right?" Chromedome asked as he headed out of Brainstorm's quarters.

"Of course, I wasn't lying when I said it was the only secret I had." Brainstorm said. "I'll be keeping the workshop open tomorrow if you want to talk more." He escorted Chromedome out and then closed the doors behind him. He went over to his recharge slab and stood over it. In a simple motion he took off his face mask and looked at the side no one else could see on it. Brainstorm smiled. "No more secrets." He said as he put the facemask back on and lied down on the recharge slab.


End file.
